UBCO Exploring NumerARTcy in Hartley Bay and Haida Gwaii
Support future educators’ experiences and growth that will help them and their colleagues infuse Indigenous perspectives, content and histories in the classroom.
Story Description
The purpose of our field experience is for teacher candidates to conduct a self-directed inquiry study while being immersed within a wealth of Indigenous knowledge. Teacher candidates are deeply honoured to be invited to participate in a variety of authentic learning opportunities intended to draw connections between culture and practice. Professional development will allow teacher candidates to gain new knowledge and skills to bring back to the Okanagan School of Education and share with peers and colleagues within the school system as well as at the Community Field Experience Symposium which is open to the public. Our hopes are to contribute to Truth and Reconciliation initiatives in the education system.
Challenges & Impact of Your Support
As of now, the cost of our 4 week long community field experience is being individually funded by eight participants and fees are approximately $4000 per student. Being in such a remote location, a majority of our budget entails of costly travel consisting of flights (including float planes), ferries, and van rentals. In addition, accommodation and food prices are much higher in these Northern Communities. With the demanding schedule of student teachers and limited time to work, we are requesting your support, so some of these costs will be alleviated.
Your gracious donations will assist in the development of future educators’ mandate to implement Indigenous perspectives, histories, and ways of learning by supporting an authentic experiential learning opportunity. Our role places emphasis on gaining place-based experiences and sharing the skills of how to apply our new knowledge in the classroom with our colleagues to benefit all students within the classroom and beyond.
About
As future educators our experiences in Hartley Bay and Haida Gwaii will be a crucial and memorable stepping stone to infusing Indigenous perspectives, content and histories in the classroom. As we are all on our own learning journeys that are guided by our personal inquiry questions, our experiences will impact all eight student teachers very differently. We are a diverse group who are united by our desire to share our learning with each other, and be change agents by sharing with our peers and colleagues.
The UBC Okanagan School of Education works seamlessly alongside local school districts which allow for significant in-situ experiences for student teachers. Within three months of returning from this community field experience in Haida Gwaii and Hartley Bay, we will be placed in local schools for a four month practicum, during which we will have an outlet to infuse our new Indigenous perspectives. As we will be sharing our new knowledge with 96 other student teachers, there will possibly be over 100 new perspectives in our local school district alone. The possibility to spark this many new conversations in classrooms and schools during a time of Truth and Reconciliation has motivated this group immensely.
